It is shameful to find that civil society organizations supposed to play a critical role in advancing transparency and good governance in developing African countries like Uganda, to be accused of doing the exact opposite of what they purport to represent by misappropriating the Development Partners funds.
Democratic Governance Facility (DGF) bosses have been accused of musappropriation of funds by awarding their girl friends lucrative deals, using swindled cash to accumulate personal fortunes, erecting huge mansions and commercial properties in Kampala posh surburbs such as Ntinda, Namungona, Mukono, Seeta towns and in Cape Town South Africa.
They go for luxurious trips to supervise their businesses, purchase substandard vehicles at inflated prices altering procurement guidelines which has sparked conflict of interest.
In 2015, Mrs Winther connived with other officials to defraud DGF by forcing the Electrol Commission of Uganda to buy a costly election result transmission machine for the 2016 general elections. It was later discovered that the same machine was ten times cheaper elsewhere.
In a statement released over the weekend by Ambassador Lindgarde that hinted on the fraud and internal collision at the fundings and increasing misuse of the DGF funds by Nicolas Opiyo’s Chapter Four, Richard Sewakiryanga’s NGO Forum, Godber Tumushabe’s Great Lakes Institute for Strategic Studies and Arthur Larok’s Action Aid, left a lot to be desired.
Christine /Csizmazia, the DGF Head of Finance and Administration audit exposed massive corruption and rot at the Organization where the cash-rich funder lost millions of dollars to the tune of US$7.5M, through unsubstantiated payments to board members and senior company officials through a network of friends while undermining the integrity, credibility and confidence of the organization.
Donors agent’s and their ally political groups under numerous covers like NGOs, CSOs and pressure groups have continued to undermine democracy and finding new ways to fabricate allegations to undermine the regime.
The challenge has been so immense that while politicians are trading hatred and lies, civil society is busy forging clusters of notes and publications all aimed at frustrating a legitimate government.
Ofwono Opondo , the Government spokesperson on Thursday said a substantial number of NGO staff previously left Government jobs because they had accountability issues.
“On several occasions they have been hesitant with Government to establish their source of funds, how much they get and how they intend to use it, all in the view of hidden mischief. Donors have to undertake scrutiny exercise to ascertain the usage of funds given to various organizations if these organizations are to gain moral authority,” said Opondo
NGOs are often reluctant to talk about their source of funds, as they are channeled to fund hostile political activities against Government.
Government has insisted that NGOs need statutory regulation because they lack transparency and accountability in their work which most times leads to embezzlement of donors funds.
The Government’s will to fight corruption both in the public and private sectors is undermined by a section of the opposition elements within, who make Government work very difficult through politicizing convictions.
At the helm of the many corruption scandals, and in the face of raised allegations, we must not bury our faces in the sand.
There is a need by Government to review the NGOs Policy so that NGOs are forced to declare their source of funding, what they intend to do with the funds and how they will spend it to mitigate corruption tendencies.
